Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
The use of noise emitting devices such as appliances, computers, entertainment systems, and similar ones, is a common experience for users in their homes and office environments. When using multiple appliances or devices simultaneously, the sounds emitted during the operation can be additive and can cause the overall noise levels within an area to be exceedingly annoying or disruptive. In addition to the level of noise, a frequency of noise can also have a disturbing effect on people. For example, high pitched sounds may affect some people more than others, while low humming noises may disturb another group of people.
The effect of noise levels and/or frequency may also depend on a current status of a person. For example, someone operating an electrical saw (or a vacuum cleaner) is unlikely to be impacted by the sound of a garbage disposal unit. On the other hand, the noise of a dishwasher, even in a quiet mode, may disturb a person listening to classical music. At times when the noise levels are too high (or frequency unacceptable), a person may manually disable or turn down one or more devices in order to achieve a more desirable acoustic environment within an area. For example, a person listening to music may desire to inhibit noisy appliances from operating to minimize the noise within the entertainment area. Thus, the person may manually disable a loud garbage disposal, turn off the washing machine, or set a refrigerator temperature to a higher value to shut down its compressor. Determining which devices (or combination of devices) cause the annoying noise level/frequency, adjusting their operations, and subsequently readjusting their operations (e.g. turning off/on, down/up, etc.) may be a difficult task to manage manually.
The present disclosure recognizes that there are challenges in determining noise levels and/or frequency components within an area and controlling a plurality of noise emitting devices to achieve an ideal noise profile.